Mardi Gras

Well, I always thought that Mardi Gras was a celebration isolated to New Orleans. But no! Mardi Gras extends as far as Pensacola (and maybe farther, but I only know about Pensacola)! Over the past week or so I've heard about quite a few parades going on around town and I told Garin that I wanted to experience one of them. So yesterday morning I heard about one going on at Pensacola Beach and we decided to head off down there after church. It was a beautiful day outside so Garin had the great idea of taking our bikes and parking a ways away and then riding the bikes in (mind you, this includes going over a bridge with quite an incline...but the bridge is a toll bridge and we didn't have to pay on bikes so it was worth the pain!). I'm so glad we did it because I'm not sure we would have found a place to park if we hadn't! Plus it was cool to ride over the bay and next to the beach :)

I was quite impressed by the parade, I must say. Back in good ol Indian Trail we have an annual 4th of July and Christmas parade. These parades usually consist of kids riding in the back of a pick-up truck, fire trucks, tractor trailer trucks, tractors, horses, the occasional float, and anything else a local business can put in the parade to advertise themselves. However the floats in this parade were quite elaborate! I mean, people put some dough into these things and they weren't even for advertisements! And each float has some theme and the people on board are all dressed up according to the theme. It was craziness! I'm so bummed that I didn't take my camera with me so I could have captured the craziness.

Another different thing about this parade was that they threw out beads and moon pies instead of the candy I'm used to. I got A LOT of beads:

Fortunately, this parade was at 2PM and was a "family" parade, so I all had to do to get my beads was smile and wave! I could have gotten so many more, but Garin reminded me that I had to ride my bike back over the bridge with all these beads on! Oh and I'm not sure what the deal is with moon pies...but surprisingly no one was really interested in them. I mean, throw some cheap beads out and people will fight for any that fall to the ground, but throw out the moon pies and people just turn up their noses! So I collected all the neglected moon pies that fell around me. I was like something edible? or some cheap beads I'm gonna throw away when I get home?! I'll go for the food every time; I just don't understand people ;)

So yeah, we had a very cool day yesterday. I think we might start taking the bikes to the beach on our Sunday afternoons! I'm excited :)